By Charles Krome

In my last article, I spouted off a bit about how the next generation of minivans may finally see the kind of design changes that would make hauling the kids around look like a cool thing to do. But it turns out that parents don’t have to wait for a Dodge man van, or even the 2011 Nissan Quest, to play Jimmie Johnson with junior in the back. You can just order one of Recaro’s new child safety seats.

Yes, the company renowned for protecting the butts of some of the world’s best race-car drivers—and outfitting some of the world’s top-performing production vehicles—now offers a line of top-quality safety seats for children ranging in size from 5 lbs. to 120.

Recaro’s strategy is to offer three separate seat choices in its new ProSERIES, which is designed to handle kids in three different stages of life. The ProRIDE is a convertible infant seat that can be mounted in both rear- and front-facing configurations, and can safely seat kids weighing from 0-70 lbs. and measuring under 50 inches in height. The ProSPORT is a combination setup. When parents use its safety harnesses, it can fit children who weigh between 20 and 90 lbs. and stand under 59 inches. When used as a booster seat, the ProSPORT is suitable for those between 30 and 120 lbs., with the same height limit.

Finally, there’s the ProBOOSTER, developed for kids between 37 and 61 inches tall and weighing from 30-120 lbs.

The Recaro ProSERIES relies on the company’s 100 years of experience to offer some significant safety technologies here, including its “innovative Side Impact Protection system.” Per the company, this system leverages the same energy-absorbing foam and proprietary seat structure found in Recaro race-car seats to offer optimum protection to five key areas of a child’s body during a side-impact collision: The head, neck, face, torso and pelvis.

Now, as anyone who might have priced-out big-boy Recaros could guess, the baby-seat versions aren’t exactly cheap. The ProRIDE and ProSPORT sticker at $279.99, while the ProBOOSTER comes in with a starting MSRP of $129.99. On the other hand, that’s a lot less than the $3,400 it would take to add a set of hi-po Recaro seats to your brand-new Cadillac CTS-V Coupe.

And talk about automotive accessories that are truly worth drooling over…